Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Committee Chair
Danny Stedman
Abstract
"The purpose of this research was to determine if a statistically significant relationship exists between principal self-efficacy and the collective staff efficacy in the public schools of a rural North Carolina school district. This study focused on overall efficacy beliefs of principals and teachers as well as efficacy beliefs related to the constructs of instructional leadership, instructional practices, school management, and classroom management. This study, conducted during the 2017-2018 academic year, included a population of 22 principals and 1,017 certified staff members in a rural North Carolina school district. The Principal Sense of Efficacy Scale by Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) was used to measure principal sense of efficacy, and the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) was used to measure teacher sense of efficacy.
Overall, one overarching conclusion was made: Those principals with a higher sense of self-efficacy were associated with a teaching staff with high self-efficacy. In other words, the interactions of the school leader and teacher are reciprocal in nature. This confirms the work of Bandura (1986) who theorized that the efficacy of a teacher could influence the efficacy of a principal and vice-versa.
Second, the study found that there was a positive correlation between high principal self-efficacy in instructional leadership and school management and high teacher self-efficacy in instructional practice and classroom management respectively.
Study results suggest that measuring principal and teacher efficacy, particularly in terms of the constructs of instructional leadership and practice and school and classroom management, may be helpful in measuring and leading meaningful school improvement.
Additionally, school boards of education and senior district administrative staff should reflect on self-efficacy in their hiring decisions for school principals. Similarly, school principals should consider the efficacy of instructional personnel as part of the school level hiring process.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Citation Information
Massengill, Douglas Ray Jr, "An Analysis of the Relationship Between Principal Self-Efficacy and Collective Staff Efficacy in a Rural North Carolina School System" (2018). Education Dissertations and Projects. 372.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/education_etd/372